Eastern Caribbean Cruise - Sea Day (01/30/25)

Another sea day, and we woke up late enough to barely miss breakfast in the main dining room.  As usual, the buffet was crowded, and had little to interest us.  

But first...

As this cruise winds down, I find myself looking forward to being home again.  No, it's not that this is a bad cruise.  Instead, it's because I'm looking forward to my old routine, and to seeing friends in Marian mode. With this being said, I'll miss lunches and dinners where the utensils are changed with every service.  I'll miss someone making up my bed and replacing my towels after I leave the cabin for a while.  I'll miss being able to visit new places, and not having to do much of anything to get there.

Today's lunch was Italian themed.  It was not a big difference from the usual lunches on sea days, save that the menu was presented differently than would be on a normal sea day.  After 8 days of being on the ship, I'm starting to get tired of all this rich food coming my way.  One thing I can say about this cruise is that if you are going hungry. it's all your fault.

After lunch, it was back to the cabin where I caught up a little on my reading. All too soon, it was time for dinner.  Once we were seated, we chatted with the Maitre D', and found out that our friends from the first 2 nights on the ship have been eating in the buffet, as they have more vegan offerings that the gentleman could eat.  However, he'd likely be coming to dinner tomorrow, as it's another Gala Night.

Finally, after a chance to rest, it was time to see the comedian for a late night show.  It's the one time I want to be out of the cabin after 10 pm.

Still thinking of a bucket list cruise.

 

Two years ago, I could have gotten last minute deal on a balcony cabin for the above Thanksgiving time cruise for roughly $1,300 excluding taxes and port fees. (They dropped the single supplement a few days before sailing.  Otherwise, the cabin would have sold for $2,600.)  Today, a similar cruise would set me back roughly $8,000.  What's the difference?  Pent up demand for cruising combined with limited availability of cabins has made this cruise unaffordable for many. 

Two years ago, I posted an entry about cruises I considered taking.  Ships are not being repositioned in a way one can predict from year to year. In the past, you might find ships that did the West Coast Alaska run now doing a Mexico run.  Sometimes, ships would be repositioned through the Panama Canal, so that they can do a Caribbean run in the Winter.  (The reverse run would take place in the Spring, preparing for the yearly Alaska cruising season.)  Now, due to the pandemic, cruise lines are moving ships to regions where they can make the most money with limited capacity.  Before the pandemic, one could easily find cruises that did a full transit of the canal.  Today, many more ships do only a partial transit - and people seem happy with that.

When the time comes, I will make sure that I have a nice one piece bathing suit ready to go for a trip to the sun.  I can't wait to be at pool side on either a Hawaii or Panama Canal run.... 

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On other matters....

Casual readers of this blog will notice that I am not going to as many meetups as I used to in the past.  There are two reasons for this.  First is the problems I had last year.  The groups I was able to attend have either disbanded, or simply stopped meeting.  Second is that I'm simply too tired to go out for the sake of going out.     

When I look at my schedule, I find that I do not have enough hours in the day to keep up with the social demands on my life. There are people I want to keep up with that I haven't been able to do so.  They are available to meet, but not at times I am available - and vice versa.  

Dating is another wrinkle.  I'm getting tired of "swiping right" and then having conversations peter out before we get to a phone call stage or meeting for coffee.  No, I am not stretching things out too far.  I might be seen as a viable but 2nd/3rd choice candidate.  I have to find the time and energy to keep up my efforts in this area, but it's not that easy.

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All work and no play may be making Marian a very boring girl.  Before I took my current job, I could easily find the time to read books.  Today, I am way too tired to do this.  I can't remember the last time I borrowed a book from the library and finished it before it was past due.  I'm at the stage where I'm considering buying a few books, simply to have them available to read without having to wait for their availability via the library system.

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Luckily, my health hasn't failed me yet.  But I have to be careful, given my age and current risk factors....

 

 

The end of the week is coming

One of these days, I'll color correct all the Corel stock images I have on my disk.  I enjoy putting them up on my entries now and then, as they are wonderful photos of places I've visited (or would like to visit).

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Today, I didn't bother leaving my apartment to do anything.  If anything, the only thing I needed to do was to attend my Thursday night Zoom meetup, and catch up on my reading.  And that's what I did.  Although I woke up around 8:30, my day didn't start until 10:00 - and I was glad of that.  I wanted to be awake when I took care of using up the milk I had in the refrigerator (which would soon start to go sour) to make pudding.  

For the most part, this trans-gal lives a hum drum life.  This evening, after my Zoom meetup, I called Vicki, and we chatted about many things.  Unlike our last call, we had an effective time limit - she had to work in the morning.  So we covered some of the subjects at hand before calling it a night.  But one thing I can say - we'll be going out for a nice dinner soon, as soon as she's fully recovered from her recent illness.